It's a movement dedicated to raising money and awareness for men's health issues. Every November millions of men from around the world show their solidarity by growing their facial hair and getting involved in the campaign.

The goals as stated by one particular group (link above)

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Campaign Strategy & Goals:We will get men to grow moustaches and the community to support them by creating an innovative, fun and engaging annual Movember campaign that results in: • Funds for men's health program investment • Conversations about men's health that lead to: - Greater awareness and understanding of the health risks men face - Men taking action to remain well - When men are sick they know what to do and take action

Program Goals:Living with and Beyond CancerMen living with prostate or testicular cancer have the care needed to be physically and mentally well.

Staying Mentally Healthy, Living with and Beyond Mental Illness • Men are mentally healthy and take action to remain well • When men experience mental illness they take action early • Men are not treated differently when they experience a mental illness

2. IT'S SILLY AND STEREOTYPICALLY MACHO - The last few weeks have seen our Facebook newsfeeds littered with selfies, as the otherwise banal and natural (yet for the female amongst us: totally unacceptable) process of hair growth is eagerly tracked with tongue-in-cheek insults pertaining to the thinness, style or “gingerness” of the emerging whiskers. Precious few of the posts, or the resulting comments, focus on men's health issues, and virtually none recognise the pernicious gendered and racial connotations carried by the practice.

3. IT'S RACIST - (S)ponsored activities (day-long silences, sponge-throwing, public waxing) depend on the extreme, the outrageous, the ridiculous. Friends and family are, apparently, only willing to part with money to witness something odd, humorous or downright unpleasant. So what message does Movember convey to those whose moustaches are more-or-less permanent features? With large numbers of minority-ethnic men—for instance Kurds, Indians, Mexicans—sporting moustaches as a cultural or religious signifier, Movember reinforces the “othering” of “foreigners” by the generally clean-shaven, white majority. Imagine a charity event that required its participants to wear dreadlocks or a sari for one month to raise funds—it would rightly be seen as unforgivably racist....there are different rules for white faces.

4. IT'S SEXIST AND INSENSITIVE - [T]he inclusivity of Movember deserves examination. For one, only men (and even then, only some men) can grow a moustache. The decision to focus on the moustache to raise awareness of men's health issues might seem like an apposite one (though there's no obvious relationship between moustaches and cancers), but it reinforces the regressive idea that masculinity is about body chemistry rather than gender identity, and marginalises groups of men who may struggle to grow facial hair, such as trans-men. Ironically, Movember also excludes the very men it is supposed to uplift; many men who have undergone radiotherapy or surgery to treat testicular cancer are rendered “hypogonadal” and are therefore unable to grow facial hair....Movember is a reminder that women should think carefully before subverting their sexually objectified bodies to join in with boy's games...

5. IT'S INEFFECTIVE AND POINTLESS - If there is to be a male-focused health campaign, shouldn't it be centred on tackling the root causes of this gender disparity? Shouldn't the campaign instead be focused on deconstructing the strict gender norms that keep so many men suffering silently? Shouldn't it be built around teaching men to self-examine for lumps, challenging taboos surrounding psychiatric illness, and encouraging men to minimise drinking, smoking and red meat consumption, all of which have been associated with increased risk of heart disease and cancer? It would seem that Movember isn't really about “changing the face of men's health”, so much as fetishising facial hair for the entertainment of young men.

It is non-optimal, because it does not tackle—in fact it only compounds—the very real health issues that hurt the men we love.

Personally, I had no idea things were so complicated. After reading that article my eyes have been opened. I understand now.

I vow to cut my nuts off and take steps to make sure my facial hair never grows again...I wish I could change the color of my skin...I am so ashamed right now. I will engage in self flagellation in a humble attempt to make up for the sin of being born with a white penis.

Maybe then Aryans Shave Arianne Shahvis will accept me as a person.

This whole article has got to be just one big troll. Is the "NewStatesmen" the European equivalent of "The Onion"?

I think you need to make it clearer at the start that the objection to Movember comes from an external source. I read through it trying to work out if you were being serious or sarcastic.

Yeah, my original draft had all the sections hyperlinked via [url] to the article but I must have jacked something up because WWGHA wouldn't allow me to post it. So I took out all the hyperlinks. I'll edit it now to make it less ambiguous.

Logged

When I criticize political parties or candidates, I am not criticizing you. If I criticize you, there will be no doubt in your mind as to what I am saying.